Mr. Peter Lunden-Welden:

I thank the committee members for their questions. As a foreigner who is here for the first time, it is a little strange for me to be appearing in the parliament of a foreign country, even though I feel very much at home in Ireland and in Dublin.

The first question I was asked was about my views on the extension of the Luas to Finglas and whether there had been any consultations with the NTA on same. Transdev has been operating here since 2004 and in partnership with various Government bodies has supplied four extensions to the network so far. All of these extensions have been enormously successful and have widely exceeded passenger number expectations. If the Government and the NTA decides to go further with plans for new Luas extensions, we will support it as we have always done to date. At the moment there is no consultation taking place because it is too early in the process. I would love to see an extension to Finglas but any programme of building new tramways will take some time.

I was also asked about Dublin Bus changes and my colleague from Dublin Bus has already spoken a lot about the process involved. Since I came here and prior to the opening of LCC, Dublin Bus and Transdev have worked very closely, not only at senior level but also and especially at control room level. We have had an exchange of operators in an effort to understand each other's problems. We have built up a lot of personal relationships between staff at Dublin Bus and Luas in recent months and that has created a better situation than would have been the case otherwise. Regarding the detailed question as to whether we could have a Passenger Information Display, PID, on O'Connell Street directing people to Marlborough Street, I will forward that to Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, which is the responsible body for that kind of infrastructural implementation. With the three minute headway we have, which is five minutes off-peak, more people will go over to Marlborough Street to take the Luas. Today the number of passengers going from St. Stephen's Green to Parnell Street is almost double what we anticipated for this stage of the operation. A few trams can even be full all the way to Parnell Street or to Upper O'Connell Street.

Senator O'Mahony and Deputy Catherine Murphy asked whether work is ongoing on this. As my colleague from DCC has said, we are meeting on a regular basis, discussing and going into great detail. Transdev staff, together with DCC staff are looking at each signal to determine if we can make improvements for all modes of public transport, including taxis. We are not looking at this only from the perspective of Luas or Dublin Bus but in terms of how to improve the situation for everyone. We have a common interest in terms of moving commuters as quickly as possible.

Deputy Lahart asked a lot of questions about congestion. Since the opening of LCC the number of passengers on the green line has increased by 24%, while on the Luas system as a whole we have seen an increase of 16%. This is evidence of the success of the Luas. Whatever we put in place in terms of Luas services, it seems it will not meet the demand. If we increase the number of trams, the demand will be even higher. As members are aware, we are introducing seven new trams all of which will be in service by the first week in May. The next step after that would be to extend the existing 26 trams, depending on the political process in this House, to become 55 m trams. The third step would be to buy another eight trams. My prediction, however, is that none of that will solve the congestion problems because with all of that will come even higher demand for Luas services, especially with the ongoing development in the Brides Glen area, for example. I was very pleased when I saw that the Government is planning to introduce a metro system. The plan that was launched last week included the addition of metro north which will also serve the southern part of the city.

Reference was made to O'Connell Bridge, which is 40 m long and to our 55 m trams and in that context I can share a snapshot of today with the committee. No tram, whether 40 m or 55 m long, stopped the cars, when they had the green light, from crossing the bridge. When the cars had the green light, the trams also had a green light to move out of the yellow box. Even though the trams are longer, as my colleague from DCC explained, the way the signals are handled is such that the trams are signalled to proceed and get out of the way of the traffic. Of course, in the context of rush hour traffic, there will be situations where a tram is blocking the traffic but that happens for all modes of transport. Due to the complexity and intensity of the traffic at rush hour, there will be incidents where some mode of transport will block other modes.

I was also asked if we can extend our hours of operation.

As a private operator, if such a request was made by the NTA, I would immediately change the roster and hire new staff to support it. The operating hours of Dublin Bus and the Luas are the same and calculated on the needs of service users. In many countries night services are operated. but in others they are not because it is believed taxis are an adequate alterative during night hours.

On overcrowding and access to the Luas for wheelchair users at peak hours, I cannot deny that it is a problem. As a mode of transport the Luas is very popular. Demand for the service is very high, but it is fully accessible to disabled people. Where we are notified in advance by wheelchair users of their intention to travel on the Luas, we try to support them, in the first instance by providing them with time slots for when there is less congestion and, second, assistance to enter a tram.

The issue of Luas travel times through College Green was discussed previously. My only reflection is that since the service was launched in December 2017, travel times have improved by three to four minutes. Following completion of the work proposed by Dublin City Council, they will improve further.

Deputy Robert Troy asked for my opinion on having one body with overall responsibility for public transport. As an operator, I am happy to work with those who have a mandate to make decisions on public transportation. I have no problem working with TII, the NTA, Dublin Bus or Dublin City Council. In 2004 there was much conflict between bodies in this area, but today there is a greater understanding of the need for them to work together. I regularly meet all of the stakeholders to try to solve problems. For me, what is important is not whether oversight of the area should be the responsibility of one or several bodies but that we solve the problems in order that people can get to work and so on.